Blue wave washes over Republicans as Democrats decisively reclaim control of the House

After the Democrats retake the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi promises that there will now be a 'checks and balances' on President Trump's administration.

The blue wave crashed over House Republicans, sweeping many away with the anti-Trump tide.

The Democratic Party decisively reclaimed control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in eight years on Tuesday, dealing a major blow to the President and opening him up to an onslaught of investigations and even the possibility of impeachment.

Advertisement

Twenty-five incumbent House Republicans — from New York City to Texas — had lost their seats shortly before midnight, with as many as nine more GOP districts likely to flip in the small hours of the morning and further widen the Democratic upset.

The high-stakes midterm elections were viewed as a referendum on Trump’s first two years in office and Democrats considered their victories evidence that Americans are fed up with his divisive agenda and hotheaded leadership.

“This is a complete rejection of Donald Trump by key constituencies the Republican Party needs to survive long-term,” veteran Democratic strategist Zac Petkanas told the Daily News. “Voters are absolutely done and are looking for a check on this out of control presidency.”

Max Rose, a 31-year-old Army veteran who mounted a Democratic challenge to Staten Island’s Trump-endorsed incumbent Dan Donovan, bucked expectations and painted New York City’s only red House district blue.

Rose, a middle-of-the-road candidate who says he won’t stand unequivocally with Democratic leadership, stayed clear of attacking Trump during a rousing victory speech at his campaign headquarters, instead thanking Donovan, calling for bipartisanship and pledging to “do things differently.”

“We were never in this to win an election,” Rose shouted. “We were in this to change politics irrevocably.”

Also in the city, self-described democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who stunningly defeated longtime Queens Rep. Joe Crowley in the primaries, easily edged out Republican Anthony Pappas, making her the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

In Virginia, political newcomer Jennifer Wexton defeated two-term GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock. The Republican incumbent had been branded Barbara "Trumpstock" by Democrats in a race that pointed to the President’s unpopularity among college-educated women in the suburbs.

Democrats needed to pick up at least 23 seats to reclaim control of the House and strategists tied their victories to an unprecedented turnout among millennials, suburban women and college-educated voters, who came out in large numbers in large part because of their vehement opposition to Trump, according to polls.

People cheer to live results while attending a midterm election night party hosted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee November 6, 2018 in Washington, DC. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP/ Getty Images)

“That’s a new part of the electorate that is making its voice heard,” longtime GOP consultant Evan Siegfried told The News. “Democrats usually do really well in elections on a federal level when there’s been some sort of mess-up for the Republican Party and in this case that mess-up is Donald Trump.”

With control of the lower chamber, Democrats are expected to launch probes into the personal finances of the President, his family and his associates. Trump’s tax returns, which he has long refused to release, will likely be a top priority.

Beyond the President, people familiar with the matter say Democrats will target other parts of a Trump administration mired in scandals and allegations of wrongdoing, including the Homeland Security Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department and the Commerce Department.

Advertisement

“Tomorrow will be a new day in America,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who may soon be the Speaker, told supporters in her home state. “Today is more than about Democrats and Republicans. It's about restoring the Constitution's checks and balances to the Trump administration.”

The House upset comes after a historically hostile midterm campaign season featuring Republican candidates taking pages out of the Trump playbook by using racially-charged language to attack their Democratic opponents.

Trump was conspicuously quiet on Election Day, watching returns with friends and family at the White House but dialing down the divisive rhetoric on Twitter.

His press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, refused to concede defeat even as several media outlets called the House for the Democrats, telling reporters, “We need to wait and see.”

The President crisscrossed the country to stump for embattled GOP candidates ahead of the election but appeared to acknowledge in the last few days of campaigning that the possibility of a Democratic win in the House was likely.

“It could happen,” Trump begrudgingly told supporters at a rally in West Virginia last week. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll just figure it out.”

The President spent most his energy on the campaign trail obsessing about a slow-moving caravan of Central American migrants, spreading false and fear-mongering claims about them while allotting less time to the economic boom that the moderate wing of his party had hoped he would focus on.

Democrats in turn painted the elections as a battle for the soul of the nation, lambasting their opponents for reflexively siding with Trump, who they have accused of perpetuating racism and bigotry.

Some House Dems have advocated for impeaching Trump on allegations he lacks the moral judgement to occupy the Oval Office and has obstructed federal investigations into his campaign’s ties to Russia.

With a majority in the House, Democrats can now finally introduce articles of impeachment, although the prospect of the Senate in turn convicting Trump are close-to-none considering Republican wins in the upper chamber on Tuesday.

Democratic leaders have remained mum on the possibility of impeachment but have made clear they back proposals to subpoena Trump’s tax returns and launch a string of other oversight efforts that have so far been blocked by the Republican majority in the House.

“We are going to show just how badly Republicans failed to be a check on this President by exercising some of the minor oversight responsibilities that they should have done months ago,” said Petkanas. “There has been no look under the hood from Republicans so Donald Trump has been acting with impunity for the first two years. That’s about to change.”